The recent rise of social software, weblogs, flashmobs, and online political campaigning may represent new opportunities for the technology-aware politician. Already, Governor Howard Dean, a democratic candidate in the 2004 presidential campaign is showing that good understanding of those new technologies can help increase the visibility of a candidate in an otherwise difficult field. At the current time, his site lists the fact that 255,173 people have signed up for his list. While the number may be small in terms of establishing a win in the long run, it is an interesting statistic. Witness, for example, the growth of social software networks like Ryze and Friendster, which both have over a million people with limited marketing being done. For example, my Friendster page tells me that, through only 11 people, I am connected to over 100 thousand people. Let’s assume that only one percent of those people are actually interested in chatting with me and I am still dealing with a thousand people. Accounting for overlaps, Dean could turn his base of hardcore supporters into a group that needs to convince about 52 million people in order to win the next election. In terms of doing so, each of his…